


just a smile so ordinary

by goingtothetardis



Series: RebelCaptain Adventures [6]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone lives, F/M, Inspiration from Rogue One novelization, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 22:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10840458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goingtothetardis/pseuds/goingtothetardis
Summary: Cassian takes a moment to reflect on a sight that still surprises him.





	just a smile so ordinary

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I finished reading the Rogue One novelization this morning, and while I'm technically supposed to be on a writing break (*cough*), I couldn't get this thing out of my mind. Its inspiration comes from page 311: _But Jyn had turned to him from the control panel looking like the last survivor of a war, and she'd smiled in a way he'd never seen before. It hadn't been a smile predicated on anticipation or courage, or one touched by sadness or doubt; just a smile so ordinary it seemed to change Jyn from a hero out of myth into a woman he might have known and understood._
> 
> Thanks to Crazygirlne for the quick read through.

Cassian pauses at the entrance to the mess hall, momentarily mesmerized by the sight in front of him. 

Jyn sits with the others – Baze, Chirrut, and Bodhi – laughing at something one of them has said.

_Laughing._

Her face lights up with a smile so ordinary – just like the one he’d seen on the Citadel communications tower after she’d sent the transmission – and it takes his breath away. 

He _knows_ her, now, understands her beyond the surface level stoicism she puts on display for everyone else. 

(A miracle he didn’t think possible the first time he saw this smile, thinking they’d been destined for death at the time, a worthy but still agonizing consequence for all the terrible things they’d done.)

He’s seen beneath the layers and knows about the cave that haunts her still – will always haunt her.

But finding purpose and camaraderie in the rebellion has given Jyn a tentative hope for the future, uncertain as it may be in the continued war against the Empire, as well as a precarious happiness. She doesn’t say this, of course, but he knows. He can see it in the way she allows her armor to drop, in the way she trusts him and the others, in the way her eyes show a very different kind of need than when he first met her.

A need for him, for friendship, for acceptance, for purpose, for _more_. The latter is something unspoken, a dangerous longing they’ve both buried deep, hidden from the universe, including themselves. But it’s something, in these long months since Scarif, he’s allowed himself to entertain with occasional reckless abandon.

The familiar sound of K2 approaching abruptly pulls him from his thoughts. 

“You’re staring,” K2 intones, following Cassian’s gaze to where it lingers on Jyn. “Jyn Erso appears happy.” The droid then studies Cassian, who glances up at his friend. “As do you, Cassian. And I am glad.” Without waiting for a response, K2 leaves his side and strides toward the table.

“Yeah…” he answers, too late. “Yeah, me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me at goingtothetardis.tumblr.com!!


End file.
